Terms Used In Florida Statutes > Chapter 238 - Teachers' Retirement System

• Accumulated contributions: means the sum of all the amounts deducted from the salary of a member and credited to his or her individual account in the Annuity Savings Trust Fund provided in…. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Actuarial equivalent: means a benefit of equal value when computed at regular interest upon the basis of the mortality tables adopted by the division. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Annuity: means annual payments for life derived as provided in this chapter from the accumulated contributions of a member. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• average final compensation: means the average annual earnable compensation of a member for 10 years during the last 15 years prior to retirement during which he or she contributed and in which the member's annual earnable compensation was highest or the average of his or her annual earnable compensation since July 1, 1945, if greater. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Beneficiary: means any person in receipt of a retirement allowance or other benefit as provided by this chapter. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Creditable service: means prior service plus membership service for which credit is allowable under…. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Department: means the Department of Management Services. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Earnable compensation: means the full compensation payable to a teacher working the full working time for his or her position. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Employer: means the state, the school boards of all the districts of the state employing teachers, or community college district boards of trustees, subject to the provisions of this chapter, any other agency of and within the state by which the teacher is paid, or any nonprofit professional association or corporation of teachers as referred to in subsection (3). See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Member: means any person included in the membership of the retirement system as provided in…. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Membership service: means service as a teacher as described in…. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Pension: means annual payments for life derived as provided in this chapter, from money provided by the state and means, when used in conjunction with plan E, the excess of the retirement allowance as provided by plan E over the annuity as defined above. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• person: includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint adventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• political subdivision: include counties, cities, towns, villages, special tax school districts, special road and bridge districts, bridge districts, and all other districts in this state. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Prior service: means service as a teacher rendered prior to the date of establishment of the retirement system and for which credit is allowable under…. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• registered mail: include certified mail with return receipt requested. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Regular interest: means interest at such rate as may be set from time to time by the Department of Management Services. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Retirement allowance: means annual payments for life and is the sum of the annuity plus the pension; except that, when used in conjunction with plan E of…. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Retirement system: means the Teachers' Retirement System of Florida provided for in…. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Service: means service as a teacher as described in subsection (3) rendered while a member of the retirement system. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Teacher: means any member of the teaching or professional staff and any certificated employee of any public free school, of any district school system and career center, any member of the teaching or professional staff of the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, child training schools of the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Corrections, and any tax-supported institution of higher learning of the state, and any member and any certified employee of the Department of Education, any certified employee of the retirement system, any full-time employee of any nonprofit professional association or corporation of teachers functioning in Florida on a statewide basis, which seeks to protect and improve public school opportunities for children and advance the professional and welfare status of its members, any person now serving as superintendent, or who was serving as county superintendent of public instruction on July 1, 1939, and any hereafter duly elected or appointed superintendent, who holds a valid Florida teachers' certificate. See Florida Statutes 238.01
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• writing: includes handwriting, printing, typewriting, and all other methods and means of forming letters and characters upon paper, stone, wood, or other materials. See Florida Statutes 1.01